Televisions and set-top boxes (STBs) for accessing various video services such as standard broadcast video, satellite, and cable television services, are ubiquitous in households across the United States. Automated home entertainment systems that combine media, entertainment, telecommunications and computing functions are becoming increasingly popular. For example, Pluto Home™ is a commercially-available home automation system that allows a user to control their whole house with a mobile phone. The mobile phone acts as a universal remote for things such as lights, television, CD/DVD playback, stereo, security, climate control, etc. A family member, for instance, may press a ‘TV’ button on their mobile phone to automatically switch the nearest television set to their favorite broadcast program. The system works by detecting the unique ID that is broadcast by each mobile phone. It then uses a mapping of mobile phone IDs to family members to determine who is in the room.
Automated home entertainment systems that rely upon mobile phones and similar types of detection schemes are prone to several problems. First, the mobile phone may be used by one other than the registered owner or primary user of the phone. By way of example, a young child may be able to watch programs having inappropriate content (e.g., excessive violence, adult themes, nudity, etc.) just by pressing a button on an adult's mobile phone that has been inadvertently left in the room. In such situations the entertainment system has no way of knowing who is actually using the phone, and simply assumes that the owner or person assigned to the mobile phone wishes to watch one of his favorite programs. Other drawbacks include that fact that people usually do not carry their mobile phone with them as they move around in the house. Rather, people commonly place their mobile phones on a table, a countertop, or into a charger shortly after they enter their home. Some people use their cell phones only on certain days, such as weekdays, but not on weekends. Others opt to set their cell phones down when they arrive at home in order to limit their exposure to potentially harmful electromagnetic radiation associated with prolonged cell phone usage. These habitual patterns of behavior with respect to mobile phone usage can easily defeat the authentication schemes relied upon by automated systems such as Pluto Home.